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The purpose of the study was to describe what attitudes there were among recipients and donors about the guiding principles that should comply with oocyte- and sperm donation. The purpose was also to investigate if there were any differences within the groups of recipient women and men and the donor group considering disclosure to the child about their origin.

The study became a part of a national project. Data were collected with questionnaire that included earlier described aspects. It was formed with statements to take stands towards in form of “agree” or “disagree”. Number of participants were 333 and data were collected from April 2005 until spring 2008.

The main results found that among donors and the attitudes toward the child’s right to get knowledge about their origin showed that women was significantly more positive in several aspects then the men. The results also showed that considering the guiding principles that should comply with gametes donation the recipients and donors had just about similar attitudes. For the recipients there was only the women who had a significant difference in one of the statements, otherwise there was no difference in either of both groups for the attitudes about disclosure to the child.

Recent research has shown significant associations (negative and positive) between religious and spiritual factors and mental health. Much of this research, however, has been conducted in the US, where religion is an integrated part of most people’s lives. Other studies on religious and spiritually oriented coping conducted outside the US have also focused on religious people. Yet many are non-believers, and many believers do not consider themselves religious, i.e. religion is not an important part of their life. There are also societies in which the dominant culture and ways of thinking dismiss the role of religion in people’s lives. Research on religious coping rarely takes these people into consideration. Thus, the following questions arise: How are religion and spirituality involved in coping when non-believers or non-religious people face difficult events? How do culture and ways of thinking affect people’s choice of religious and spiritual coping methods? Proceeding from a cultural approach to coping and health, this book attempts to address these questions by looking at the coping strategies of Swedish cancer patients.

5.

Ahmadi, Fereshteh

University of Gävle, Department of Caring Sciences and Sociology, Ämnesavdelningen för socialt arbete.

Islamic women in Iran challenge the clergy’s monoclinic interpretational power by reconstructing gender and Islamic discourses in a radical way. The result is the flourishing of a new Islamic feminism in Iran which has different attitude towards certain points regarding the Korans view of gender than the other Islamic feminisms.

Islamic feminists in Iran emphasis the historical context of the Koran and by doing this reformulate Islamic concepts and law from a “feminine” perspective. They open the doors for interpretation of sacred texts and dialogue on women issues to other groups than Muslims. They wrestle with the clergy’s reactive gender conservatism and their Westophobia. Islamic feminist in Iran by embarking on connecting themselves with western feminism and viewing their struggle against discrimination of women in Iran as an integrated part of the global feminism struggle weave new textual connections between Muslim women and Western women.

6.

Ahmadi, Fereshteh

University of Gävle, Department of Caring Sciences and Sociology, Ämnesavdelningen för socialt arbete.

By applying results from in-depth interviews with older Iranian Sufis residing in Sweden, this article describes the benefits of the value system of Sufism prizing mystical union above self-realization. As persons conceive of themselves as all forming parts of other-than-self rather than as separate selves, the result is tolerance towards other people's opinions and the vanishing of hostile feelings and competition. Compassion and identification with the whole of creation allows Sufis to avoid the sense of loneliness and exclusion felt by so many immigrants.

Leading scholars, offering international and multidisciplinary viewpoints, examine the meaning of home to elders and the ways in which this meaning may be sustained, threatened, or modified according to changes associated with growing old.

Organized into four sections--The Essence of Home, Disruptions of Home, Creating and Recreating Home, and Community Perspectives on the Meaning of Home, this volume explores topics including:

What makes a house a home?

What role does the meaning of home play in the process of relocation to another place of residence?

What is the relationship between a person's home life and cherished possessions such as symbolic jewelry or religious items in late life?

How does the community/neighborhood environment influence the way that older people feel about the places in which they live?

This volume will be of interest to practitioners, researchers, upper-level graduates/graduate-level students in gerontology, environmental psychology, social work, and nursing. It will be valuable to everyone in the helping professions who seek a deeper understanding of the ways in which "being at home" and attachment to place plays a key role in the life experience and well-being of their clients as they grow older.

8.

Ahmadi, Fereshteh

University of Gävle, Department of Caring Sciences and Sociology, Ämnesavdelningen för socialt arbete.

The aim of the study on the basis of which this article is written was to examine, from the patients’ perspective, the role music plays as a coping method when facing cancer. Here, using music as a coping method refers to using music (listening to and/or playing music individually or participating in a music therapy program) frequently in order to deal with the significant demands presented by cancer. A semi-structured interview with 17 cancer patients who have used music (listened to or played music) in order to cope with their illness was applied. Five of interviewees were men and twelve women. The youngest informant was 24 and the oldest 73 years old. In the paper presented in this conference I will discuss the result of my study concerning the effects of hard and heavy music in coping with cancer. The result of study shows that hard and heavy music as a coping method:

- by calling in question the cultural demands of having control over their feelings, helps the young cancer patients to obtain their control,

- by questioning what are conventionally defined as meaning of life, helps the young cancer patients to find a meaning,

- by calling in question the cultural requests of being calm and collected helps the young cancer patients to get their tranquility,

- by cheering unhealthy behaviors like using drug and having violent sex helps the young cancer patients to recover their mental health.

All this due to the possibility the heavy and hard music provides for the young cancer patients to get self-confidence by putting away the false mask one wear and be who she/he really is.

University of Gävle, Department of Caring Sciences and Sociology, Ämnesavdelningen för socialt arbete.

Immigrants and Globalization: identity crisis and the concept of the Individual2005In: The XXIX Conference on Sociotechnics - Sociological Practice. “Networks and Partnership for learning Regions in an area of Micro-globalization in Everyday Practices. The International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committee Conference RC # 26 in Association with the Sociology Department of the University of the Aegean., 2005Conference paper (Refereed)

Challenging the clergy’s monoclinic interpretational power, Islamic feminists in Iran, by emphasizing the historical context of the holy texts and reformulating Islamic concepts and law from a “feminist” perspective, are developing a new direction in rethinking gender in Islam. By opening the doors of interpretation of sacred texts and debates on women issues to other groups than Muslims, they have braked with reactive gender conservatism and West phobia prevailing among fundamentalists, and have embarked on connecting themselves with Western feminism and weaving new textual connections between Muslim women and Western feminism.

12.

Ahmadi, Fereshteh

University of Gävle, Department of Caring Sciences and Sociology, Ämnesavdelningen för socialt arbete.

Late life development - from the perspectives of spiritual development and gerotranscendence - has been studied using the Life History Approach followed-up by thematic semi-structured interviews with Iranian Sufis residing in Sweden. On the basis of this study and proceeding from the theory of Gerotranscendence, I have, in this paper, illustrated the distinct role of aging in the development towards wisdom and maturity when mystical ideas are already integrated into individuals’ ways of thinking. This is achieved by contrasting, in terms of certain gerotranscendent dimensions, an aged Sufi’s view of her/his Self and the surrounding world with that of a middle-aged Sufi.

15.

Ahmadi, Fereshteh

University of Gävle, Department of Caring Sciences and Sociology, Ämnesavdelningen för socialt arbete.

This essay examines the similarities and dissimilarities between a gerotranscendental person's and a Sufi's view of ontological questions, of self and of social and individual relationships. Using the Life History Approach followed up by thematic semi-structured interviews, I studied thirteen Iranian Sufis residing in Sweden, dividing the interviewees into two groups according to the stage of their life in which they became familiar with the Sufi ideas: those who became familiar with Sufi ideas early in their life (30 years) are called early Sufis, and those whose familiarity with Sufi ideas came about in their later life (>30) are called later Sufis. The study posits that the existence of a cosmic view of self and the surrounding world can be observed among early Sufis due to their intemalization of the Sufi ideas in early life. Regarding later Sufis, we can hypothesize that the existence of such a cosmic view is not only due to the intemalization of Sufi ideas, but also to aging.

Within the framework of an international research project aimed at studying the impact of different cultural settings on gerotranscendent development, six groups of older people distinguished by religiosity and cultural origin were studied. A life history approach, followed by thematic semi-structured interviews, was applied. One of the objectives was to inquire about the possible impact of religion, conceived of as a cultural setting, on development towards gerotranscendence. The findings of this inquiry gave rise to two hypotheses as to the relationship between ge ro transcendence and religiosity. The first hypothesis is that the internalisation of mystical-type ideas in individuals' ways of thinking is probably a factor involved in the development of a gerotranscendent view of life. In other words, whether individuals practice their 'religion' in a spiritual, nonorganisational way, or in an organisational way, may play a role for development towards gerotranscendence. The second hypothesis is that certain characteristics, such as the secular and individualistic features of modern societies, may delay development towards gerotranscendence.

21.

Ahmadi Lewin, Fereshteh

University of Gävle, Department of Caring Sciences and Sociology, Ämnesavdelningen för socialt arbete.

A possible relationship between gerotranscendence and life satisfaction was examined using the life narrative approach followed by thematic semi-structured interviews with religious and secular Iranians residing in Sweden and religious and secular Turks residing in Turkey. Both the Turkish and the Iranian studies provide support for the hypothesis that there is a relationship between gerotranscendence and life satisfaction. Both studies show that persons who displayed evidence of gerotranscendence also displayed evidence of life satisfaction. Additionally, neither of the studies revealed informants displaying gerotranscendence in the absence of discernable life satisfaction.

22.

Ahmadi Lewin, Fereshteh

University of Gävle, Department of Caring Sciences and Sociology, Ämnesavdelningen för socialt arbete.

The main objective of this article is to show the divergent attitudes of Iranian immigrant men and women towards integration into Swedish society.

As several studies have shown, Iranian women have a better chance of adjusting to Western societies than Iranian men. This article discusses the notion that one of the important reasons for this is the determining role of professional position in the life of Iranian immigrants in Sweden.

As a result of the improvement in their work status and therefore an improvement in their social position, Iranian immigrant women now have greater possibilities than Iranian immigrant men to overcome the identity crisis which ordinarily makes ethnic groups and cultural minorities lose their sense of fitting into their new social reality.

This results, in its turn, in the women having a positive attitude towards the new society and increases the extent of their desire for integration into the new society.

The paper discusses the notion that, in research on elderly immigrant housing, it is not enough to delineate the residential geography of different elderly immigrant groups or to study the economic and social reasons for their segregated habitations and exclusiveness. It is also necessary to understand, in the spatial context, the degree of integration and the differences between groups. In explaining these differences, consideration should be given to each elderly immigrant group's own value system, norms and preferences. It is argued that one necessary task in this endeavour is to gain knowledge about different elderly immigrant groups' understandings of what a home symbolises - what home means to them in the context of their particular ways of thinking and culture. From this point of view, the paper concludes that, when investigating the meaning of 'home' among elderly immigrants, an integrative theoretical approach based on an experiential perspective and a phenomenological and developmental perspective are deemed appropriate to be adopted.

The purpose was to describe nursing staffs’ perceptions of risks for malnutrition and preventive efforts thereof, for patients 70 years and older, at different care levels within one municipality. Descriptive design was used and twelve participants included; two district nurses, one physiotherapist and one occupational therapist from a health care centre, two registered nurses, one unit directorand one physiotherapist from a nursing home in the municipality and four registered nurses from an internal medicine hospital ward. Interviews and qualitative content analysis was used resultingin four categories Conditions of risks for malnutrition, Ensuring nutritional intake, Structured way to workand Collaboration and responsibilities. The participants’ described diseases, disabilities and lost of apprehension concerning weight constituting malnutrition risks. Meals and meal environment influence nutritional intake. Risk assessments, interventions and evaluations mirrored structured way of working. Collaboration with colleagues, other professionals and care levels were highlighted together with responsibilities. Physicians’ participation in malnutrition preventions needs clarification. Improvements like documentation of the nutritional status among the elderly and reports between the different levels of care are needed to ensure safe nutritional care.

The aim of this descriptive review was to elucidate how the literature describes how children of parents with mental illness experience and have knowledge about their parent’s illness. The aim was furthermore to describe how the children’s existence is affected, can be improved and why the children so often are invisible. Search through Medline (through PubMed) database and additional manual search was conducted. In total fourteen articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. The chosen method for analysis was qualitative and the results are presented on the basis of different subjects that elucidated the questions at issue. The study shows that children of parents with mental disorder often takes responsibility for the parents disease, a disease that has to be kept a secret and often lead to social isolation for the children. The children often have poor knowledge of the parent’s illness. Due to different obstacles these children are difficult to identify and thereby also difficult to help. The children themselves have clear opinions of what kind of help they want, mainly economic and domestic support, conversational support and information. One of the authors’ conclusions is that new research needs to be done regarding Swedish conditions.

This study is based on a compilation of previously collected and unprocessed data. The purpose of the study was to compare whether there were any differences between the feelings of mothers and fathers of children with Down syndrome (DS). 80 mothers and 79 fathers participated in the study. The children´s average age was 4,7 years when the parents answered the questionnaire. They were responding to a questionnaire concerning feelings over a period of three months. The survey that was used in the study consisted of 21 emotional expressions that would be estimated on a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of 0-10. The results showed that both mothers and fathers of children with DS estimated "happy" highest and "devastated" lowest. "Happy", "angry" and "sorry" was significantly higher in mothers compared to fathers. Fathers estimated "bitter / gloomy" significantly higher than the mothers. Moreover, there were no significant differences between the parents. Both mothers and fathers estimated the positive emotional expressions higher than the negative. The results of the study interpret that mothers and fathers of children with DS are not in need of gender-adapted but personalized support and guidance.

The aim of this study was that, with focus on experiences of participation and life satisfaction, work situation and consumtion of non institutional care, compare two groups that had participated versus not participated in a stroke program for Strokescreening. A questionnaire was sent retrospective to a consequetive group of people. The results were analyzed with Chi2-test, Mann Whitney-test, T-test, linear regression analyzes and multiple logistic analyze. No significant differences could be shown between the groups even though some tendences were noted. The group who participated in the Strokescreening program experienced less participation in personal care than the group who did not participate. The strokepatients that participated in this study experienced a significant lower level of life satisfaction than a reference group of a normal population of Swedes. There was a prominent difference between the groups about occupation before the stroke. In time of this study there where some higher percentes in the group who participated in the Strokescreening program that had returned to work. Several of the participants in the group that had not participated in the Strokescreening program had a regulary contact with the non institutional care. The results of the present study arouse some questions about the benefit with the Strokescreening program related to the expences. The method of a questionnairy study had some weekness, both in a relatively high level of reduction of participants and a question about the relevace of the questions asked. Therefore, it would be of great interest to make an interview study of this population. It would also be of great interest to examin if there are any differences in the frequency of how many of the participants who gets another stroke in respective group. The purpose of that would be to see if the Strokescreening program has any secondary preventive effect.

The aim of the study was to describe how child health care nurses (CHCN) experienced their work with regard to give support to parents, the content of the work as well as their thoughts concerning developing the support to parents. The study had a descriptive design where ten CHCN from different healthcarecentres in the central part of Sweden were interviewed. The collected material was transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The result was presented under the theme to do what is the best for the child, categories and subcategories. In the category conditions and attitudes the CHCN described how they viewed the situation from the child´s point of view, created a confidence, were available, prepared and understanding. The CHCN addressed that the content of the parental support wasto identify and make assessments, support parents and give advice, protect the child, cooperate and coordinate and give out information. Positive experiences the CHCN mentioned was to connect with the parents and children, to get positive feedback, the job situation and the feeling of meaningfulness. Difficult situations in their work was to meet children that were abused, parents who were hard to reach, insufficient attachment between mother and child, when reports needed to be made, illness or death, personal obstacles and lack of resources. Improvement areas identified by the CHCN were related to the nature of the parental support provided, resources as well as the level of personal education.

The aim of this study was to describe nurses’ knowledge of pain. The method used was a systematic literature study. Information was gathered from the databases Blackwell Synergy, Academic Search Elite and Medline, and the keywords used in the search were: pain, knowledge, nurses and nurses.

The result was divided into three subgroups; Insignificant documentation and evaluation. More education is necessary. Knowledge and attitudes.

Nurses need to improve their documentation and do it more continuously, not only at the end of their workday, but also make documentation about changes in the patient’s condition. The result showed lack in nurse’s basic traing regarding pain and pain management. Nurses that had gone to further education regarding pain and pain management had more knowledge in the subject. Concerning how knowledge and attitudes played a role in the interpretation of pain in patients from other cultures , the result showed how important it is that the nurses are culturally congruent, meaning that they must support, promote and amplify actions and decisions that goes along the lines of other cultures values and life styles.

The educating of pain advisers seems very worth wile since workplaces with pain-advisers have improved their pain management considerable.

The purpose of this descriptive literature study was to describe the climacteric experiences and expectations of women and the support provided by the public health sector especially from nursing staff. Knowledge gained from this study is aimed to be used in providing more comprehensive nursing care for women. The search for literature was done by using databases. English-language articles that presented relevant data were identified from 1995 to 2007. A total of twenty- two scientific articles were included in the study.

The analysis resulted in two major categories of experiences: Confusion as well as insecurity and dissatisfaction with health service providers. Confusion and insecurity is rooted in the physical, psychological and social aspects of life. Women’s experiences and expectations differ from each other. Both positive and negative aspects are described. Society in general has a significant influence on how women experience climacteric. General dissatisfaction with health care providers was prominent and this applied across the board from nurses to doctors. Women experienced that health care providers lacked understanding to their needs and communication between them was far from satisfactory. The authors conclude that it is essential for nursing staff to understand the effects of climacteric in order to meet the needs of women.

The aim of this study was to describe and compare nurses, district nurses and physicians approach to the hygiene guidelines. The data collection was conducted with a questionnaire within four hospital units and nine primary care units in a Swedish county during spring and early summer of 2009. A total of 186 healthcare workers returned the questionnaire, 86 from hospital units and 100 from primary care units. The main result of the study shows that the healthcare workers from both hospital and primary care didn´t estimate all, by the authors chosen, routines equally. A significant difference found between the units was that hospital personnel estimated the importance of not to wear private clothes during work higher than personnel from primary care. Also, they more rarely departed from the routines regarding to disinfect their hands after physical contact, not to wear jewelry or a watch on their hands or arms and not to wear private clothes during work hours. Nurses/district nurses from hospital and primary care units estimated the importance of following the guidelines to be higher than the physicians did from both units. They also estimated higher on the majority of the moments regarding compliance. This study shows the need of continued studies within this subject because of the lack of studies regarding healthcare workers approach to the guidelines and what effect it can have on improving compliance.